SECO/VACUUM, a SECO/WARWICK Group company, received an order for a high-volume nitrocarburizing furnace serving a major automaker via a tier-one supplier. The horizontal retort furnace is designed for precision nitriding capability and productivity. It will allow the company to produce, in North America, a significant number of parts used by automotive suppliers and will be integral to a larger investment in the firm’s component manufacturing operations. In addition to ferritic nitrocarburizing (FNC), the furnace can also provide clean stress-relief processing.

The supervisory board at SECO/WARWICK Group unanimously decided to name Sławomir Woźniak president of the management board. The new president has been appointed for the same period as the joint term of the new management board, which spans the next three full financial years.

Baker Furnace, a division of Thermal Product Solutions, installed a quench tank for a commercial heat treater as part of its aftermarket services. The company had two quench tanks (one hot water and one cold water) and three drop-bottom furnaces and needed a third quench tank to optimize quench loads per day. The quench tank has three impellers capable of 27,000 GM on a 15,000-gallon tank. This style of agitation allows for thick, large castings to dissipate heat faster.

Listen to Industrial Heating Editor Reed Miller and Dan Herring, The Heat Treat Doctor, discuss issues of technical interest on this monthly podcast.

Thyssenkrupp will build an advanced forging line at its Homburg site in Germany’s Saarland region. The company will invest approximately $90 million in a new 12,000-square-meter facility to produce forged front axles for trucks. The centerpiece of the highly automated and digitized forging line will be a 16,000-ton forging press measuring 32.8 feet (10 meters) high and weighing 1,700 tons. According to thyssenkrupp, the press will produce 360,000 forged components per year and will not be restricted to one product. In addition to front axle systems, the line will be able to produce crankshafts and other forged parts as required.

We continue to review some of the most important materials in heat treatment and metallurgy.  

The recent staging of the Bright World of Metals, which consists of GIFA, METEC, Thermprocess and Newcast, confirmed its position at the world’s most important international platform for the metallurgy and casting sectors. Numerous investments, spontaneous business deals and lively discussions characterized the dynamic atmosphere in the 12 halls of the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Solar Atmospheres recently installed an all-metal hot-zone vacuum furnace at its facility in Souderton, Pa. This is the heat treater’s third all-metal hot-zone furnace installation for its climate-controlled room. The new furnace increases Solar’s capacity for processing sensitive materials such as PH stainless, nickel-chrome-based superalloys, titanium and ferritic and austenitic stainless steels. 

Tenova LOI Thermprocess received an order from U.S. Steel Kosice, a Slovakian steel producer and fully integrated metallurgical plant, for an annealing and coating line (ACL) for dynamo steel strips. Tenova will supply the complete ACL, including a heat-treatment furnace, drying oven and the associated electrical, instrumentation and control technology. The plant will use the ACL to produce non-grain-oriented electrical steel. The contract scope includes engineering, turnkey delivery of all equipment and supervision of the assembly and commissioning.

Saarstahl is investing approximately $19 million to expand heat-treatment capacity at Saar-Blankstahl, its subsidiary in Homburg, Germany. The investment includes a roller-hearth furnace for heat treatment; construction of a 4,300-square-meter hall with cranes; and a straightening machine with a corresponding packaging unit. The new heat-treatment plant is scheduled to begin operation in fall 2020.